Arsht Center may finally get parking

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is partnering with the School Board of Miami-Dade County and the county commission to establish a performing arts industry high school near the center.

The arts high school is one of four proposed new industry-focused schools of choice that were proposed in a resolution commissioners passed July. The new schools are in direct alignment with the Beacon Council’s One Community One Goal plan and Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s AIM Initiative launched at the 2013 Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Goals Conference.

“Each [school] would have its own purpose to educate young kids for things we see a need for in the future,” said Lewis “Mike” Eidson, chair of the Arsht Center’s board.

Located to the west of the Arsht Center on land the school district owns, the arts schools is to have a programmatic focus on the performing arts industry. It will hopefully have a theater of its own, according to Mr. Eidson, for both the students and the Arsht Center’s use.

The Arsht Center is to partner with the TownSquare Neighborhood Development Corp., founded by Mr. Eidson in 2011, and the school district to develop the educational facility. The school will sit atop a parking garage, according to Mr. Eidson, which will provide 700 to 800 indoor parking spaces for both the school and the center’s use. It has not been determined who will run the garage, Miami-Dade County or the Miami Parking Authority.

Retail space will also be integrated into the garage, Mr. Eidson said. The garage would significant improve the accessibility to parking for patrons of the Arsht Center, since parking has proved to be a challenge.

The TownSquare Corp. was established to influence development of the neighborhood surrounding the center, so it will also partner with the county and the school district for this project. Three other schools were also proposed for various locations in the county under the same resolution, with focuses on the target industries of the One Community One Goal plan.

A tech entrepreneurship acceleration magnet high school would focus on computer science and its application to provide students with the ability to develop expertise in technical fields that would serve them as potential entrepreneurs, according to the resolution.

Zoo Miami and the Zoological Society of Florida, which already have partnered with the school district for the Zoo Magnet Program at Richmond Heights Middle School, will also help develop a science, technology, engineering and math magnet high school with a curriculum focus on conversation biology, scientific research and technology, the resolution says.

The final school is to be a direct result of the emerging logistics and international trade industry in Miami-Dade County. Miami serves as the largest US gateway for the Caribbean and Latin America and therefore aviation, trade and logistics are vital to the local economy. This logistics and international trade magnet high school, the resolution says, will offer a curriculum designed to prepare students with the appropriate certifications to be qualified for entry-level jobs at the airport and seaport upon high school graduation.